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BrewinHooligan

BrewinHooligan

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My "Oktoberfest" fermented with an alt yeast went into kegs today. Gonna lager in the kegorator a few weeks with a slow carb. Took leftovers and carbed with a carb cap in a 2 liter bottle and hot damn is this one good. I can get authentic Oktoberfest flavors much faster with an alt yeast than a true lager yeast, I love it.
 
Lezanstar

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Recently went to a few breweries and had my first Berliner. I'm guessing they added fruit syrup after the fact, but the wife loved it. 3.1% and tasted like a hand crafted soda. What recipes do you guys use for this? I have seen several of you brew this for the summer, and I had no idea how refreshing it would be. Do you all brew this with fruit or brew and add fruit later? Any recipes I should try?
 
Hoshneer

Hoshneer

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Lezanstar said:
Recently went to a few breweries and had my first Berliner. I'm guessing they added fruit syrup after the fact, but the wife loved it. 3.1% and tasted like a hand crafted soda. What recipes do you guys use for this? I have seen several of you brew this for the summer, and I had no idea how refreshing it would be. Do you all brew this with fruit or brew and add fruit later? Any recipes I should try?
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A local brewery did Berliner and I didn't think I'd like it but by the bottom of the glass I started to really enjoy it.
 
HIM*

HIM*

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This is what I used to teach myself the basics.....http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=579458 I also have the process listed in easy steps.
Now I normally do all grain but if I'm testing a new fruit or something I'll use this recipe to potentially save grain/time should it not work out. If you do want to do AG I recommend starting with a 50/50 split of Pils/wheat(I prefer white wheat) with enough acid malt to get you into the 5.2-5.4 range.
For fruits I prefer adding them to the keg as a cold side addition. Similar to how a brewery would with their brite tank. When doing it this way you get way more out of less fruit and keep the flavor. I tend to like 1/3lb per gallon for 2-3 days as a starting point. If you check that link though I listed some of the things I've tried and the amounts I used.
 
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Lezanstar

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Thanks for he link. I didn't even know this style was a sour. The one I tried had no recognizable yeast character. Though that could be because of the raspberry tartness. I use plastic for fermentation, I'm assuming that if I made this, the vessel could no longer be used for standard brews because of the chance for infection?
 
HIM*

HIM*

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Lezanstar said:
Thanks for he link. I didn't even know this style was a sour. The one I tried had no recognizable yeast character. Though that could be because of the raspberry tartness. I use plastic for fermentation, I'm assuming that if I made this, the vessel could no longer be used for standard brews because of the chance for infection?
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Berliner Weisse don't really have a lot of yeast character though more traditional versions have a little. Especially ones with Brett. American versions tend to be cleaner and more sour. In either case the clean lactic character is the hallmark of the style.
If you can dedicate a fermenter and separate equipment that's always best practice but I don't totally do that. I use a product called Sani-Q mixed at disinfectant strength on fermentors and gear afterwards. So far so good. Luckily lacto won't work in the presence of hops, I've tried, so it's hard to infect the majority of beers people brew anyways. Other bacteria and wild yeast that people mess with are a bit more dangerous.
 
HIM*

HIM*

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15% total Crystal/carapils seems a bit high unless you want the sweetness. I'd also consider a bit more rice hulls just in case. All in all it looks good though.
 
BrewinHooligan

BrewinHooligan

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HIM* said:
15% total Crystal/carapils seems a bit high unless you want the sweetness. I'd also consider a bit more rice hulls just in case. All in all it looks good though.
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I actually dig the sweetness this one has with all the hops. I'm pretty sure that the amount of rice hulls will be fine with my manifold. The way I built it, it's pretty damn hard to stick.
 
BrewinHooligan

BrewinHooligan

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bostoneo said:
Just finished mixing up a new batch of mead. There are apples, ginger root, cinnamon sticks marinating in the batch made with 18 pounds of Buckwheat honey. Potential alcohol is only limited by the yeast of 18% abv.



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If you gradually add sugar as it ferments you can usually push the yeast a little farther. Problem with that is starting with a lower gravity and feeding small amounts of sugar every day or so. Yeast nutrient and oxygen are two things that are a must with high abv fermentation and expect to let it sit and age for a long time to be its best.
 
HIM*

HIM*

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Oh yea that's going to be rocket fuel for a while until it ages out. I love a good mead but it takes way more patience than I have to do it right. Cyser is as far as I'll go lol.

We had our annual Brewfest yesterday and things went pretty well. My Berliner was the only watermelon beer there out of probably 50+ vendors, mostly FL breweries, and was kicked before the tasting finished. Lots of love on that one. People also loved the Weizenbock, including Sierra Nevada's rep, and almost kicked that as well which I really didn't expect. Oddly, the past 2 years I didn't bring an IPA and both times people came up to our booth in hopes for my Badfish. So this year I bring it and it didn't get nearly as many requests as the other 3 beers we brought lol.
 
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bostoneo

bostoneo

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HIM* said:
Do you have an O2 set up? If you can give the yeast some more oxygen it will help keep them going at all that sugar. I think wine makers just stir the must so that might even be enough to work.
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Dunno about that. I had to take off the airlock because it kept filling with must. I installed a tube and ran it in to some sanitary water in a 1 L beer mug and the thing bubbles like a machine gun. Hopefully the lid doesn't blow off and make a mess haha.

 
BrewinHooligan

BrewinHooligan

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Ec1118 will ferment anything and if you treat it right you can get way above 18%abv. I use that to make my 10%abv lemon wine and even in that harsh/acidic environment that stuff goes crazy. I have to stabilize and back sweeten after fermentation to the tune of 2lbs sugar/5gal batch. Tastes like lemonade when done and can be real dangerous on a hot day.
 
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